1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to thin film transistors which can be used as driving elements for panel displays such as liquid crystal displays. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a thin film transistor, which can realize formation of socalled islands and planar structure in a self-aligned manner.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, thin film transistors have been widely incorporated as driving elements in liquid crystal display panels. The thin film transistors are generally formed of amorphous silicon, and mainly divided into two types, the coplanar type and the stagger type. The stagger type is also divided into a normal stagger type and an inverted stagger type.
Heretofore, the inverted stagger type thin film transistors have been manufactured in the following manner: a gate electrode metal is deposited on a substrate and then etched to a given pattern of gate electrodes. A gate insulator layer is formed on the substrate to cover the gate electrodes, and an i-type amorphous silicon layer providing an active layer and an n.sup.+ -type amorphous silicon layer for ohmic contact are formed on the gate insulator layer in the named order. Thereafter, the amorphous silicon layers are selectively removed excepting portions to be left for constituting transistors. Namely, semiconductor islands are formed.
In the prior art, an independent mask is prepared for formation of islands, and the islands are formed by photolithography. In addition, drain and source electrode wirings are provided to lie on step portions formed by the islands.
However, the conventional island forming method is disadvantageous in that the large area patterning of the liquid crystal display is greatly influenced by precision of the mask used, a slight defect of the mask used, and precision of mask alignment. Further, since the drain and source electrode wirings lie on the steps formed by the gate electrodes and the islands, the electrode wirings are often broken at the step coverage portion and because of a so-called side etching when the electrode metal is etched to provide a given pattern of electrodes and wirings.